e that always
followed in the wake of a king, a multitude whose night-long
revels banished sleep: _Moe pono ole ko'u po_ (verse 17). The
poet seems to be thinking of this same hungry multitude in
verse 18, _Na niho ai kalakala_, literally the teeth that
tear the food; also when he speaks of the Niuhi (verse 19), a
mythical shark, the glow of whose eyes was said to be visible
[Page 218 for a great distance in the ocean, _A mau i ke
kai loa_ (verse 20). _Ikuwa, Welehu, Makali'i_ (verses 7, 9,
and 10). These were months in the Hawaiian year corresponding
to a part of September, October and November, and a part of
December. The Hawaiian year began when the Pleiades
(_Makali'i_) rose at sunset (about November 20), and was
divided into twelve lunar months of twenty-nine or thirty
days each. The names of the months differed somewhat in the
different parts of the group. The month _Ikuwa_ is said to
have been named from its being the season of thunderstorms.
This does not of itself settle the time of its occurrence,
for the reason that in Hawaii the procession of the seasons
and the phenomena of weather follow no definite order; that
is, though electrical storms occur, there is no definite
season of thunderstorms.

_Maka-li'i_ (verse 10) was not only the name of a month and
the name applied to the Pleiades, but was also a name given
the cool, the rainy, season. The name more commonly given
this season was _Hooilo_. The Makahiki period, continuing
four months, occurred at this time of the year. This was a
season when the people rested from unnecessary labor and
devoted themselves to festivals, games, and special religious
observances. Allusion is made to this avoidance of toil in
the words _Li'ili'i ka hana_ (verse 11).

One can not fail to perceive a vein of gentle sarcasm
cropping up in this idyl, softened, however, by a spirit of
honest good feeling. Witness the following: _Noe-noe_ (verse
3), primarily meaning cloudy, conveys also the idea of
agreeable coolness and refreshment. Again, while the
multitude that follows the king is compared to the r